The eponymous character in Channel 4's new series appeared to go through life
as if constantly nibbling a giant Wonka bar, says Michael Pilgrim

Modern documentary is full of personalities apparently ready-made for the camera. So much so that you wonder what these people did before the commissioning editor phoned.

Tom’s Fantastic Floating Home (Channel 4), was no exception. The eponymous lead character, Tom Lawton, was an inventor with boyish good looks and enthusiasm for gadgets. He appeared to go through life as if constantly nibbling a giant Wonka bar.

Then there was his sidekick, Scrapheap Challenge’s Hadrian Spooner, a diffident engineer. And a wacky fellow called Colin Furze who souped up mobility scooters so that they could do 70 mph. Each one of these three was a human cartoon. Equally, the narrative ticked every box for light fly-on-the-wall film-making. First, a tricky task which had to be done in a limited time: in this case restoring a wooden boat and equipping it with dippy inventions.

Second, a buddy thing. Spooner was disdainful of Lawton’s wheezes. When the inventor suggested a retractable, segmented room on the deck, Spooner despaired. “He’s invented something that’s a pain to make, expensive, with an inability to keep watertight. It’ll probably rattle.”

Third, a family thing. Childlike Lawton was doing all this, it seemed, to entertain and educate Barney, his six-year-old. And, yes, we were persuaded that Barney was the more mature.

If this was engineering, it was engineering in the way The Clangersis a deep treatise on extra-terrestrial life. There were clumsy attempts to put a security camera on a tethered helium balloon and some funny business using sawdust to fill gaps in the hull. Occasionally, it got cleverer. For instance, touching on hydroponics – where plants are grown with only light, water and nutrients. Otherwise we got Coco the Clown doing a Royal Institution Christmas lecture with silly music.

As it goes, the best line in Tom’s Fantastic Floating Home came from the cast member who wasn’t hamming it up. As Lawton’s balloon floated away, obliging him to call the Civil Aviation Authority, Barney announced: “I need a poo.” I hope that was unscripted.